The Eastern Congo 



found myself crossing, in the direction indicated by the 

 guides, the most wonderful alpine moor that can well be 

 conceived. The groups of fantastic vegetation gave me 

 the novel feeling that I had dropped on to some new planet, 

 Mars, as it might be, who knows ? 



Unless there is a very clear sky, which is an exceptional 

 occurrence at this elevation, the snow-clad massifs of the 

 Ruwenzori Mountains in their entirety remain unrevealed 

 to the hardy climber until the very last ridge is mounted 

 and the last bush turned — as if the Mountains of the Moon 

 were loth to reveal their secret. But to the traveller who 

 has the fortitude and good luck to gain the last eminence on 

 which I now stood there is a sight to be seen worthy the 

 effort. For one reaches the edge of a precipice and gazes 

 across a dark and narrow valley at an unequalled panorama 

 of glistening glaciers and mighty snow-caps, their whiteness 

 enhanced by black projections of rock and ridge ; this too, 

 framed in a setting of senecios and lobelias, everlasting flowers 

 and alpine plants of many species ! 



In spite of the approaching mist I at once set about the 

 work of getting both my cinema and stand camera in position, 

 but as a fall of snow and sleet commenced shortly after, 

 driven by a gale off the snow-fields above us, my time was 

 wasted, and I packed up and prepared to return to camp. 

 On my way thither, the guides led me to a lower eminence 

 where lay two corked bottles and one glass tube. On examina- 

 tion, one bottle and the tube contained records of visits 

 made by one Enghshman (Mr. J. S. Coates of the Anglo- 

 Belgian Boundary Commission, 1907) ; three Belgians — Mons. 

 Dierkz, Chef de Poste, Kasindi, Pere Lens of Mbeni and 

 an ornithologist, name undecipherable ; and two Germans, 



140 



